salt intake question

keepmovingforwardtoday
keepmovingforwardtoday Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,
I am new to my fitness, three days in. My question is salt intake. Since I have started my fitness I realize we are eating fairly well. However, our salt intake is very high. Does anyone have suggestions about how to decrease salt intake and still be able to eat the same foods we enjoy? I have selected has many low sodium ingredients that are available. The sodium is still way to high. My family loves mexican. We eat mexican at least once a week, of course this is very high in sodium. Any suggestions or special receipts.
Thanks,
Ginger

Replies

  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    Most of the sodium in modern diets comes from processed foods. Your diary is closed so I don't know what you eat, but if you eat out regularly and/or eat lots of pre-packaged foods, try doing more home cooking from raw ingredients, without adding salt, to reduce your sodium intake.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    Personally, I don't worry about sodium. I think I'd rather die early than give up Mexican food, anyway.
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
    If you don't have any medical reasons to restrict sodium then just drink plenty of water. Water flushes out the sodium. Preparing more foods at home also helps but I don't worry about my sodium level because I drink plenty of fluids. In fact, I changed my sugar and sodium for calcium and fiber.
  • keepmovingforwardtoday
    keepmovingforwardtoday Posts: 7 Member
    We mostly we eat at home. Rarly do we eat out. The salt intake is not so much a concern for me. I am more concerned for my husband. He has high blood pressure and diabetic. Trying to plan meals that includes his needs. He loves mexican and our weekends on Fridays or Saturdays is pizza. We have cut pizza out of our diet to at least once a month. Try to!
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    If you don't have any medical reasons to avoid salt (such as high blood pressure) then its probably not a big deal. Good to watch, not to stress over. I've found most low sodium options are barely lower than the standard version - and often have higher sugar. Processed foods are high in sodium, and if they remove one ingredient they usually add another to make up for it.

    Eating out, eating processed meats/cheeses/salad dressings are the worst. On the other hand, I understand you can offset the sodium effects somewhat by drinking extra water and by consuming things with high potassium like bananas.
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
    Has he tried Mrs. Dash's seasonings?
  • skruttan44
    skruttan44 Posts: 86 Member
    I try to stay in low sodium as well. Love Mexican food.

    What I found like you, is that many items have high sodium,.However, you can buy dry beans ,make your own rice ,etc. and make things from scratch. That way no extra sodium is added.
  • keepmovingforwardtoday
    keepmovingforwardtoday Posts: 7 Member
    We don,t eat out for our meals. I cook everything at home and never add extra salt to the food. Except for the occasional pizza at occasional papa John's. Pizza we eat for a special occasion because the kids love it. Won,t lie I do to. Lol!
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
    any food you make at home from scratch you could use a mix of salt and morton salt substitute, which is potassium chloride and tastes pretty salty. note: you don't want to get crazy with the salt substitute, but it could help lower overall salt intake while still having a salty taste.

    btw, i used to salt my foods heavily, never worrying about it at all. then one night, my ankles swelled up to over double their size, and it felt like i was wearing sweatpants around my ankles, but there was nothing around them. after that, i started having blood pressure spikes after eating salty foods, so i did my best to cut down.
  • Swiftlet66
    Swiftlet66 Posts: 729 Member
    If you aren't adding salt, then most of the sodium must be from the processed foods you use to cook at home. Otherwise, I don't understand how you could say your sodium levels are high. I also watch my sodium levels because high blood pressure runs in my family. Here's how I track my sodium: when I cook, I use MFP's recipe calculator and enter the ingredients. From there, you can see which seasonings/food is high in sodium and you can substitute or alter it according to your needs.
  • keepmovingforwardtoday
    keepmovingforwardtoday Posts: 7 Member
    Yes, rarly use. I put nothing extra on my food. If anyone wants salt or Mrs. Dash they add themselves. Like a previous post if I eat to much salt my fingers swell and mouth gets very dry at night. I wake up in the middle of the night thirsty. I personally add nothing to my food even cooking. My hubby use to complain about some food not have much flavour. I told him add the seasoning to his own food I was tired of my fingers hurting and being thirsty all the time. Looking at my fitness counts I never realized just how much salt was in the food alone. Wow!
  • cheripugh1
    cheripugh1 Posts: 357 Member
    Hello,
    I am new to my fitness, three days in. My question is salt intake. Since I have started my fitness I realize we are eating fairly well. However, our salt intake is very high. Does anyone have suggestions about how to decrease salt intake and still be able to eat the same foods we enjoy? I have selected has many low sodium ingredients that are available. The sodium is still way to high. My family loves mexican. We eat mexican at least once a week, of course this is very high in sodium. Any suggestions or special receipts.
    Thanks,
    Ginger

    Nothing makes me madder than these 'experts' who say 'if you don't have a health reason, like high BP it's not an issue'.... my point is before you give BAD advice get educated! So a smoker can smoke because they don't have a smoke related illness? or an alcoholic should keep on drinking them down because their liver is still fine?

    I was not an excessive salt user, I did not have high blood pressure but I am on a reduced sodium diet, it is the only restriction I was given after my open heart surgery... which I will tell you, you do not want to have open heart surgery, you do not want to have a heart attack because I will tell you there is NOTHING as painful as either of these. They have recommended new levels for everyone to stick to in reducing sodium intake, that is all not just some people.

    You need to watch your sodium level and teach your family to also... I do not use Mrs. Dash or any of those fake salts... I do use Diamond Crystal Kosher salt and the reason I say it's name is it's the best reduced sodium salt (including other kosher) I have found that I can cook the same with... Try to not add salt at the table, use it to cook with but don't offer it on the table. You'll love the flavors of the foods once you adjust, introduce yourself to new flavors, new natural spices. Avoid processed foods, look at the sodium levels and try to pick the brand with the lesser amount. You'll go over some days it happens but just aim for a healthier level most of the time. 2300 mg is a good goal, mine is 2000mg.
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
    Nothing makes me madder than these 'experts' who say 'if you don't have a health reason, like high BP it's not an issue'.... my point is before you give BAD advice get educated! So a smoker can smoke because they don't have a smoke related illness? or an alcoholic should keep on drinking them down because their liver is still fine?

    The same applies to any advice given on this forum even when suggesting sodium alternatives like Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt . Unless a person is an “expert” and "educated" on the medical history of the OP then their advice could be as “Bad” as the next person. Smoking and Alcohol are addictive whereas sodium is not addictive. Furthermore, unlike tobacco and alcohol, sodium is in just about every food consumed. Not everyone has issues or will develop issues with sodium.
  • keepmovingforwardtoday
    keepmovingforwardtoday Posts: 7 Member
    Thanks that is a good number to start with. My mother in law had a stroke and her husband is diabetic. She said the same thing about salt and she spoke to my hubby about adding salt to his food. High blood pressure runs in his family. I don,t offer salt to my kids for that reason. That is why I stoped putting salt in my food. I was very surprised to see just how much salt is in food without adding salt. I do like the idea of making all fresh ingredients to cut down on salt. I believe next time we have mexican I will make salsa from scratch. Actually that sounds better compared to store bought salsa.
  • BruceHedtke
    BruceHedtke Posts: 358 Member
    Another thing to watch out for, especially if you are eating a lot of processed food, is the portion size. Looking at the label of something, you might see it has 400mg of sodium and think "that's not so bad" but if the meal has three or four servings per package, that 400mg turns into 1200-1600mgs.

    Just as an example, if you make a family sized package of Stouffers Mac n Cheese, each cup has about 920mgs of sodium and a package has five cups of product. That's over 4600mgs of sodium just from that alone, almost two days worth of your recommended daily allowance in one package. If you have a family of four and it is divided equally, everyone just had about 1200mgs of sodium (roughly half of your RDA) solely from the mac&cheese you ate at dinner.

    Until I started reading labels, I had no idea how many portions were in many packages. If you are not already, read the labels of everything you buy. The numbers are quite eye-opening.
  • ArtGeek22
    ArtGeek22 Posts: 1,429 Member
    I can't personally say what is causing this for you since your diary isn't open, but the most common cause of increase salt intake is processed food. Generally, the less processed foods you eat the lower your sodium will be since you are more in control. I personally try to keep my sodium under 800 mg, ideally around 500 mg, and preferences change from person to person. I just noticed my bloating dramatically decreased with my sodium. One more thing is to be cautious of "healthy" prepackaged snacks or foods of any variety because even though they may be lower in other departments of fats or artificial flavourings but high in salt to make it appealing. So stay strong and remember that fruits, veg, and whole foods will forever be superior!
  • LosingItForGood13
    LosingItForGood13 Posts: 182 Member
    Mrs Dash has a lot of flavors I have to watch my daily salt intake I try not to eat process foods at all since they are so high in sodium
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    I still struggle with sodium.

    You will help yourself a lot if when you cook, you do it without salt. Add Mrs. Dash (for flavor) when it's time to eat. I like the table blend best for in-place-of-salt, but I use several kinds. Once you get used to not tasting all that salt, you'll want it less. Processed foods will taste too salty. It's really hard to buy anything frozen, canned or boxed that doesn't have too much.

    But you'll be better off for it and if you get your kids accustomed to eating without salt, they'll have a better shot at healthy eating habits as adults. Cardiologists are always talking about sodium. You're providing the start of eating habits that will protect your children's health in their middle age. Good for you!!

    I'm so bad with salt. :(. Always struggling.

    Salt is really hard!! They just put too much of it in things!

    If I could figure out a way to eat healthy Mexican that I liked, I'd tell you. :)
  • CupcakesMom2
    CupcakesMom2 Posts: 154 Member
    I used to love salt, added it to everything. But then I got high blood pressure and I just simply cut it out, Now I never add it to anything and I am currently cooking most of my food from scratch so I control everything including salt. Now, if I happen to eat something someone else cooked, (or in a restaurant) even if they say they 'hardly' added any salt, to me it tastes too salty. So what I'm saying is if you prepare Mexican food or any other food from scratch and do not use anything with salt and substitute spices, in my opinion, over time you will get used to not having salt. However 'over time' is key here, it won't happen after 1 day or 1 week, you have to stick with it.
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
    We mostly we eat at home. Rarly do we eat out. The salt intake is not so much a concern for me. I am more concerned for my husband. He has high blood pressure and diabetic. Trying to plan meals that includes his needs. He loves mexican and our weekends on Fridays or Saturdays is pizza. We have cut pizza out of our diet to at least once a month. Try to!

    Since your husband has high blood pressure and is a diabetic then you two should be working with an experienced dietitian to help with meal plans and proper sodium levels. You could get a referral from his primary doctor.

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